Udeepta Phukan

PhD candidate @TezpurUniv; I study hypertensive bodies/environments

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

Listened to today's 3 things podcast of The Indian Express just now and was surprised at the way Tora Agarwala explains Upper Assam as a region. She says, "This is the region where primarily Assamese speakers stay-- where descendants of the Ahoms who ruled Assam for 600 years...

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@AirIndiaX Hi AIX, I have a flight from Dibrugarh to Bengaluru via Guwahati tomorrow. Wanted to ask if pulse oximeters are allowed.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@Rituparna37 Thank you, Rituparna Baa!

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

Excited to share that my article, “Nimokh cha/pani and the governance of taste: hypertension, nutritionism, and Assam’s tea plantation workers,” is out today in Food, Culture & Society (Taylor & Francis).

https://t.co/hVGFoyuNTs

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@HimanxhuNath Thank you, Himanshu! You were the first to push me for it. This would not have been possible without you.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

At the heart of this paper lie two simple questions: Why is “salt tea” (nimokh cha/pani) so hard to give up for Assam’s tea plantation workers, despite the risk of hypertension? And what does public health miss when it calls it a bad habit?

More in the paper!

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@amitangshu Fair enough.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@amitangshu You wrote “only”. So naturally my focus gravitated to that. Your tweet reads as if you are making two different claims at once. Or maybe I read it wrong.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@angshuman_ch You are one of the finest intellectuals writing on Assam currently. I just wanted to know the kind of thinking that went into writing this piece. I feel that your use of the term caste Hindu is much broader than it actually is.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@angshuman_ch Increase Assamese voting power and reduce Miya (I am not using the term pejoratively) voting power.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@Rituparna37 Thanks for your support, Rituparna Baa. I’m determined to get this across the finish line. Hoping for this year to be my year of salvation.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

(3) To those who might counter with the most vapid of enquiries—“So what’s wrong in that?”—my answer is simple: “It hollows out our vision for the future”. And I say this not without good reason.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

(2) This is not a problem in itself. However, it is seen that year after year, the key attraction of these processions remains the same—the Axomiya Biya (Assamese Wedding), which essentially means the Dora-Koina (Groom and Bride).

[Ashwini V Mohan ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ 🦎🧬🙋🏾‍♀️ @crazy_chipkali]

A timely piece about the need for a natural history museum in India - what I like to call the ‘time-capsule for biodiversity education & research’! Huge potential & little action, but it’s never too late. https://t.co/N0fm8KlWaH

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

One more year till I submit my thesis and then I'm out of this system that's crumbling right before my eyes. May not be as soon as I would ideally want, but it's an eventuality.

[Udeepta Phukan @phukan_udeepta]

@a_random_2020_ @HardeepJorhat1 @himantabiswa His twitter feed is polluted with anti-Dibrugarh posts. To make a point about Jorhat's pre-eminence and claim something that he considers as "rightfully Jorhat's" doesn't mean that he has to drag Dibrugarh into something which I see as a personal displeasure with policy decisions

[Anita Leirfall @anitaleirfall]

We think of language as a transparent tool for expressing thoughts & describing reality. Philosophers agree that “the map is not the territory”. Recent thinkers argue that language plays a fundamental role in shaping our perception of the world & of self. https://t.co/JnIPLUgL3G